What’s up everyone? Welcome to the Slakrverse Tales! Each episode, we feature an original Fantasy or Science Fiction story from the Slakrverse! 

I’m your host, Mark Jefferson.

Today, we look at a story that happens before the OVERSEER books. 

Terok, a main character in the first two OVERSEER books, had a horrible — and scandalous — childhood. Her entire life has been one of hardship, physical abuse, and human trafficking.

The story is named “Terok” and begins when her life started a downward spiral.

I produced everything you hear in this podcast at the Slakr studios. The only thing I didn’t create was the music and sound effects. Special shout-out to pixabay.com and all the wonderful contributors on that site.

Pixabay offers royalty-free photos, illustrations, vectors, videos, GIFs, audio and sound effects. I use their website and think they offer an excellent product. Check them out at Pixabay.com.

OK, on to the story. May I present: OVERSEER: Terok by Mark Jefferson.

Terok watched her mother arrange dinner on the large wooden table that took up the center of their small foam-stone hovel. Like most homes in her tiny village, one large room comprised the entire house. Thick, colorful carpets hung from hooks fastened to the ceiling, created moveable walls that divided it into small rooms.

Despite its size, her house was still her home. Terok grew up in this small home; it was all she had ever known. Terok’s mother, a calm woman, always knew the right words or the right way to touch her to calm her down. She was an excellent cook, using whatever spices she had available to flavor her meals in the most wondrous ways.

She studied her mother as she seasoned the meal. Terok had no knack for cooking, no matter how much she tried. It always ended the same way. Terok stormed off in anger because she didn’t understand what she did. That was her way of coping. Tinok’s mother’s reproachful look caused more pain than her father’s discipline.

Her father was not a calm man. Terok didn’t understand what her mother saw in him. She imagined his critical words and angry stares at anyone that crossed his path, including her. She considered her father and admitted that she was more like her father than her mother. For an eight-year-old, she was very perceptive.

Her older brother, Tinok, took after her mother. He was two years her senior and possessed her calmness, yet with a mischievous edge. He was out somewhere helping their father around their small farm. Tinok was Terok’s best friend. Her only friend.

Most of the time, they got along well. Their biggest issue was her fiery temper. It was something he didn’t inherit from their father. When Terok grew angry, things weren’t so nice between them. Within an hour or two, Terok’s anger blew over, but Tinok remained hurt and distant for several days. The loneliness struck her to the core, and she would beg him to forgive her.

Terok resembled her mother. She was tall for an 8-year-old. She had a long black ponytail tied off with a green cloth her mother gave her. Everyone told her how pretty she was, how she would rival her mother’s great beauty when she grew up. Such things were unimportant to Terok. She had no use for boys, except for her brother. Most boys in the village made fun of her when she passed them by. Terok was too tall, too thin. She had a long nose. She was ugly and poor. The taunts piled one on another. Most of the time, Terok shrugged the comments off. But those times when she felt insecure, or upset about something, or angry, or just in a bad mood? To say she reacted in anger was an understatement.

For the past year, these taunts happened behind her back. If anyone, including her brother, teased her to her face, she picked a fight with them. She fought dirty, and whomever she fought ended up with a swollen black eye, or blood-smeared nose, or torn clothes. The village boys feared her now. Especially Yerok, the son of her father’s employer.

She inherited her father’s long nose and pouty lips and possessed a quick temper. She had a tendency to speak her mind, and it got her into all kinds of trouble, especially with her father. He was not averse to grabbing her arm, spinning her around, and paddling her backside with whatever he had in his hand. Lately, she didn’t even cry anymore. She just turned baleful eyes his way, and her father rewarded her with several more swats. Paddling hurt, but the fights with the village boys hurt more. A beating from her father put fear in her, but in her heart of hearts, she would never let him know he hurt her. And if she was honest with herself, she deserved every beating she received.

For now, she felt satisfied just setting up the early dinner for her birthing-day celebration. Her family was poor, so it was an honor to have a feast in her name. Farm Hands possessed little Mana. spending so much on her was an honor. Each morning, before her mother and father rose for the day, they concentrated on a small ring her mother wore. And each morning, the lone crystal chip mounted on the ring glowed for a short time afterwards. At the end of every week, her father took the ring from her mother, and his employer paid him in the same manner. The day after payday, Terok and her mother took the quick journey to the Village of Ok and purchased all the food and supplies they needed for the following week.

One day, when she was much younger, she asked her mother why they stared at her ring every morning to make it glow.

Terok’s mother studied her for a moment, then resumed cutting an enormous stack of vegetables. “We’re collecting our Mana.”

“What is Mana?” Terok looked at the tiny gem fragment mounted on her mother’s brass ring.

“It’s our magic. We use it to cast spells, or to buy things.”

Terok nodded, wrinkling her brow. “Why don’t you just make stuff with magic? Why do you have to collect it and buy stuff?”

Her mother knelt beside Terok so that she was at eye level with her. “See the fire pit?” She gestured towards stacked bricks in the corner. Terok nodded, her gaze redirected towards the small circular oven made of fitting earthen bricks in the house’s corner. The pit was dark, the logs now turned to ash. The fire from the previous night had long since died out. “When your father and Tinok come back with firewood, I’ll show you what you can do with Mana. Maybe then you’ll understand.”

Terok’s father and brother entered the house not long afterwards. Terok learned her first spell that day: how to start a fire. Of course, her father lectured her about where and when to start a fire, how dangerous it was, and how she must be careful or she could hurt people. He droned on and on, and by the time he finished, Terok ground her teeth and frowned because he had ruined her first spell. He beat her for her sullen look. Most interaction with her father ended the same way.

She had learned several spells since then, but each was difficult for her. Creating a spark to start a fire was easy, about as basic as you could get. Powering a crystal lamp, while also easy, was still much more difficult. Terok got sick to her stomach every time. Heating rocks? She threw up the first time she tried it, and the few times she had tried since made her so sick to her stomach she thought for sure she would vomit. She stopped trying.

Today, however, she didn’t think about any of that. It was her birthing-day celebration, and her family would have a meal in her honor. Her grandparents were due to arrive soon, and they always made Terok feel important when they came to visit her. That was the best part. She felt good about herself during those times. She felt important.

Terok’s father and brother burst through the thick carpet door-hanging. Both wore serious expressions, and neither smiled when they looked at Terok. It hurt her feelings, and the corners of her mouth turned down.

“What’s wrong?” Terok’s mother asked. Her father’s eyes flickered to Terok, then back to her mother.

“Your daughter has been fighting again. They sacked me.” Whenever her father said ‘your daughter’, that meant Terok had a beating coming. All eyes switched to Terok.

Terok turned innocent eyes to her father, avoiding her brother’s gaze. Her father’s eyebrows rose, expecting an answer.

Terok sighed. “Yerok said we are poor.” Terok stood straighter. She stared at her father, and her words seemed to set off a storm in his face. Her father, sputtering, marched toward her, red eyes flashing. Terok stood her ground.

“I TOLD YOU WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF YOU BEAT YAROK UP AGAIN!” Terok’s mother grabbed his arm, attempting to slow him down. He ripped his arm from her grasp, and in the same motion, struck Terok hard across the face. Terok flew several feet across the room and landed in a pile on the floor. Stars swam before her eyes.

“DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU’VE DONE?” he screamed, fists clenched. “Yerok is my employer’s son, and I told you he would sack me the next time you beat him up! We are homeless now!” He stood over her, face red and huffing. Angry hands reached for her. The beating was about to begin!

Terok scrambled to her feet, avoiding his angry grasp. She darted between her stunned mother and angry brother out the door. The last thing she heard was her mother and father screaming at each other. Worst of all, her brother cried.

Terok bolted into the nearby cornfields. The tall cornstalks ripped at her clothes, cut her exposed skin, but she didn’t care. Her anger radiated from her in waves, and she thought she might hit her father back if she went near him. Unwanted tears leaked from her eyes, and she wiped them away. She would not show weakness! Yerok had earned that beating. He teased her on purpose so she would beat him up. He got his wish. She had pummeled him without mercy.

Terok stopped short, a strange sensation passing through her stomach. Her eyes opened wide in surprise. A wave of sickness swept through her, like she had just heated a large stone pile, but much worse. Bile rose in her throat, and Terok gulped as she tried to keep from vomiting.

An earth-shattering screech, like metal on metal banging and rubbing on itself, reverberated through her mind. She bent over, clutching her ears, and screamed. Sound rocked through her, numbing her mind, and the ground bucked. Terok flew her off her feet, spinning in the air. She crashed down, crushing corn stalks beneath her. The surrounding cornstalks vibrated, then layed over in a rushing wind. 

A bright flash lit the sky, casting stark shadows around her. Everything blinked out. Darkness swallowed her entire being! The metallic ringing died down, but the earth shook again, bucking her up and down. 

The ground undulated like a snake, vibrating like nothing she had ever experienced before. Several times, the earth tossed her into the air, each time landing harder than before. After an interminable time, the shaking lessened, and Terok attempted to stand, but aftershocks made it difficult to stay upright. She teetered on the edge of falling and sank to her knees. 

Terok pulled her hands away from her ears, finding them covered in sticky wetness. She couldn’t see anything, but she knew what covered her fingers. 

The ground seemed different. Before, everything had been flat, now everything stood at an angle. Terok turned toward her hut, but she saw nothing. Blackness had swallowed her sight! Had she gone blind? Was the Most High punishing her for being so bad? 

Panic set in. Her jaw ached from clenching it. Her ears rang with the aftermath of that terrible, world-ending roar, and everything sounded dull. She tried opening her eyes wider, but it made no difference. Everything remained black as death. In despair, she looked up and saw the stars, brighter than she had ever seen.

Terok stretched her hand before her, inching her way back the way she came. She parted the cornstalks as best she could, but her courage deserted her. She whimpered in terror as she placed one foot before the other, trudging toward her home. Terok wasn’t even sure if she traveled in the right direction! She called out to her mother, but no one answered.

In the distance, she noticed moaning. Someone cried out, then stopped. It sounded like her mother and brother! She noticed a very dim glow and adjusted her trajectory to aim for the light. As she grew closer, the glow turned into a small ember from an exposed fire pit. The moans stopped, and everything became silent.

The small glow highlighted a jumbled, rocky mound. Terok drew closer and realized her house had collapsed on itself, unrecognizable. Her footsteps quickened, and she stumbled over rocks and other small outcroppings. Terok’s eyes widened in horror as understanding dawned on her. Her entire family was in that demolished house, and it had collapsed on top of them! If it wasn’t for her temper, she would have been in the house!

“No, no, no, no, no!” she repeated, a litany against fear. She rushed to the destroyed mound that had once been her house. “Mommy! Mommy!” she wailed.

Someone coughed under a pile of stone. A bloody hand reached through the stones, grasping the air. Terok ran to the exposed arm, recognizing her mother. 

“Terok, I need you to listen to me.” Her voice sounded weak. “Your brother is by the fire. I need you to pull him out and get help.” She coughed, but Terok couldn’t see her face beneath the rubble. The debris muffled her voice, and she sounded like a ghost of herself.

“Mommy, I’m scared!” Terok wailed again.

“I know, honey. I know. But you need to be brave now. You must help your brother. You understand? I need you to help your brother. I love you. Always remember that.” Her voice grew weaker with each word, the last part almost a sigh. The hand sagged, falling against the rock. Terok collapsed to the ground, wailing in fear and loss. She knew without being told, her mother was dead.

Terok rocked back and forth, crying and frozen in terror. How long she stayed like that was unclear, but at some point she heard her brother whimpering, and she remembered her mother’s last words. She found the source of his moans near the fire and started moving rocks. It was all Terok could do to lift them, and she only carried them a short distance before she dropped them with a loud clatter.

Terok worked for a long time, not knowing how late it was. She was sure the stationary sun above them would have dimmed by now, but she wasn’t certain. After several hours, she uncovered her brother’s arm. She redoubled her work, freeing his upper body. Unfortunately, a large section of wall covered his lower body, and no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t lift the heavy stone.

Tinok lay pale and unmoving. Cuts and bruises marred his body. She shuddered, thinking of his legs crushed legs under the collapsed wall. Somewhere in the night, he had stopped whimpering. Terok was numb with shock. 

During her frenzied attempt at saving her brother, she realized her father was dead as well. She had not heard him once since the sun went out. She hung her head in guilt. The Most High was punishing her! If she had listened to her father, none of this would have happened. She was evil! She deserved what she got!

During the night, farmhands from across the field arrived, and together they lifted the collapsed wall from Tinok. Terok drew a horrified breath. His legs didn’t look like legs anymore! Tinok screamed when the wall lifted, then fell silent and laid still.

Men drug him from the collapse stone cabin, then dug her parents from beneath the rubble. They found her mother straight away, but Terok knew she was dead. Almost in a trance, Terok was too tired to react. They dragged her mother’s body clear of the unstable rocks walls, then continued moving debris, looking for her father.

She carried stones from the hut with the others, unable to think of anything else to do. Later, more people arrived, but Terok didn’t register it. Someone wrapped a blanket around her shoulders, and she fell into an exhausted sleep.

…

Terok’s eyes popped open. She glanced around with panicked eyes, hoping the previous night was a bad dream. She took in the devastation surrounding her with a grim expression. The sun was dim, almost as dark as the night sky. The stars glittered, especially bright in the darkness.

Terok sat bolt upright, taking in several men and a woman working around what remained of her house. Everyone was silent, moving stones in a human chain, passing the rocks from one person to the next. Terok noted a brown mongrel dog hovered around the debris, also digging. No one paid attention to it.

The human chain stopped, the last rock dropping as they drug the crushed and bloody body of Terok’s father out from beneath an intact wall. Her brother stayed quiet, unconscious. The Most High had punished her family for her selfish actions. If she had been a better child, if she had been more like her brother, this wouldn’t have happened. Terok drew in a shuttering breath. She had caused all this devastation.

Thinking of her brother, she scrabbled to her feet and crossed the short distance between them. Someone had thrown a blanket over him. He had not moved since the last time she saw him. She pulled the blanket back, exposed his dead eyes. She covered him again. Shock raced through her, but she couldn’t react. She had caused his death.

Terok jumped as a soft hand touched her shoulder. The woman she saw earlier, Yerok’s mother, said, “Terok, I’m sorry about your family.” She glanced at Tinok, then back to Terok. “We sent for a healer, but he never came. I’m so sorry.”

Terok nodded, too numb to comprehend anything beyond the fact that her family was dead. She stared into space, ignoring Yerok’s mother, who rose and headed back to the collapsed cottage.

“All right, Most High,” Terok whispered under her breath. “If this is your way of punishing me, so be it.”

She rose, a cold fire in her belly, and took her place with the others surrounding her dead parents. She took hold of the surrounding rescuers’ hands and prepared for the Death Chant.

I hope you enjoyed OVERSEER: Terok. I began writing the third book in the OVERSEER series and thought Terok was a good place to begin.  I mapped out the events in the story and even wrote several chapters. It became apparent this was not going to be a fun book to write. 

It details slavery, human trafficking, betrayal, physical abuse, prostitution, and hopelessness. In fact, the story gets worse and worse until the last chapter, where she escapes her bondage by the skin of her teeth by murdering her captor. Terok is the most tragic character I’ve ever created. She’s had a cruel life, and in the beginning I was going to kill her off in OVERSEER: Servants Chapter 7.

I broached the subject with several test readers and let some look at my outline. They all thought it was too depressing to write!

Anyone who’s ever written a book knows that sometimes characters take on a life of their own. Terok was one such character for me. When push came to shove, I couldn’t kill her. It seemed cruel to murder a character who endured such hardship and misery throughout her entire life. So I revised the story and kept Terok around. And I’m glad I did! She is such a rich and complex character. She is one of the few characters that gets a truly happy ending in the second OVERSEER book. I figured I owed her that much. 

Unfortunately, that meant another character had to die. I had to propel the other characters into motion, and I couldn’t think of another effective way to do it. I still get hate mail for that character’s death, but it propelled the whole second book’s plot forward! If you’ve read the first OVERSEER book, you know what I’m talking about.

The events in this story take place during the Great Calamity, which killed countless people and reshaped the entire world. It made the rest of the OVERSEER series possible. The story happens during Terok’s 8th birthday. 

Terok is a difficult child. She is headstrong, stubborn, and doesn’t take crap from anyone. She blames herself for the events in this story and her family’s death, though in reality she had nothing to do with it. This event shapes the course of her life, and not in a good way.

The magic system is unique to the OVERSEER universe. Everyone can use magic in this setting. Magic is neither good nor evil — it is a natural force. All individuals, regardless of ability, can cast spells starting at a young age. They collect their magic power, known as Mana, and store it every day in crystal rings they wear. They use this Mana to cast spells, and for money as well. Terok uses magic as well, but has no great skill at it.

I spent many months crafting the OVERSEER universe, and I hope it shows in the finished product. I’ve had several comments from readers that magic seems like a natural extension of the OVERSEER world. That wasn’t by accident. I have about 70 pages of notes I created before I started writing the first book. It was tedious work, but I’m glad I did it now. I refer to these notes often when writing an OVERSEER story, and they have saved my bacon several times. There is nothing worse than inconsistencies in your world-building. I assure you, readers will notice.

Writing has always been my passion, and I’ve written several books. You can find me on amazon.com. Just look up Mark Jefferson Overseer. Select a book, then click on my name in the Author section.

You can view all my published books on that page. If you like this story, try reading some of my novels. I think you’ll enjoy them!

I’ve written many short stories that take place in this — and other — settings, and I may feature some of them in upcoming podcasts. Several of these short stories are in my published books as prologs or epilogues, while others are unpublished. Either way, I hope you’ll enjoy them all!

Some stories I’ve written use different and novel magic systems. In the Overseer universe, magic permeates everything and all people use it. In other stories, magic is science-based and only those trained can use it. One story I’m working on has magic in the water, and users store its power in silver and gold rings. The world is a mountain that floats on a sea of clouds, and metal is rare. It’s just a sample of what’s coming.

Our next podcast takes a look at a powerful Arbitrator on the eve of leaving her home city for good. She has been apprenticed by the Emissary, the most powerful sorceress in the world, and must travel the following day to start her training. It’s a cat and mouse game for the most dangerous opponent she has ever faced, and tests her abilities to their utmost.

If you enjoyed this podcast, please subscribe and tell your friends about it. Thanks for listening to the Slakrverse Tales.

This is your host, Mark Jefferson, signing off.

Cheers everyone!